Bernie Sanders
D

U.S. senator from Vermont

Age on Election Day: 79

Bio

Brooklyn-born Bernie Sanders is a self-described "Democratic Socialist" who was first elected to represent Vermont in the Senate in 2006. He's a graduate of the University of Chicago, where he studied political science and became involved with the civil rights movement. In 2016, he sought the Democratic presidential nomination and became the first Jewish candidate to win a presidential primary. He was a lead sponsor on the Senate’s 2017 “Medicare for All” bill and has pushed for free tuition and public and private universities.

Key Issues

Amy Klobuchar
D

U.S. senator from Minnesota

Age on Election Day: 60

Bio

Amy Klobuchar is a three-term U.S. senator from Minnesota. Before entering public office, she was a county prosecutor. Klobuchar graduated from Yale University and the University of Chicago Law School. Among other health care priorities is expanding Medicare to include Americans older than 55.

Key Issues

Improving health care, including for substance abuse and mental health

Cory Booker
D

U.S. senator from New Jersey

Age on Election Day: 51

Bio

Born in Washington, D.C., Cory Booker attended Stanford University on a football scholarship, was a Rhodes scholar and earned a law degree from Yale University. The former mayor of Newark has served in the U.S. Senate since 2013, when he won a special election. If elected, Booker would be the first vegan president, as well as the first unmarried president in more than a century.

Key Issues

Pete Buttigieg
D

Mayor of South Bend, Indiana

Age on Election Day: 38

Bio

In 2012, Pete Buttigieg became the youngest mayor of a U.S. city with a population of at least 100,000, in his hometown of South Bend. Buttigieg graduated from Harvard University, was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and served as an intelligence officer in the Navy Reserves. If elected, he would be the first openly gay president.

Key Issues

Elizabeth Warren
D

U.S. senator from Massachusetts

Age on Election Day: 71

Bio

Elizabeth Warren has served as a senator for Massachusetts since 2013. Before then, she worked as a law professor and served as Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program that assisted American financial institutions after the 2008 recession. Warren was also the architect of what is now the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She wants to make public college free.

Key Issues

Julian Castro
D

Former secretary of Housing and Urban Development

Age on Election Day: 46

Bio

Julián Castro and his identical twin brother, Joaquin -- a U.S. representative -- attribute much of their interest in politics to their mother, who is a civil rights activist. Castro served as mayor of San Antonio before becoming the U.S. secretary of Housing and Urban Development under the Obama administration.

Key Issues

Beto O'Rourke
D

Former U.S. representative from Texas

Age on Election Day: 48

Bio

Beto O’Rourke gained national name recognition when he challenged Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018. O’Rourke did not win the seat, but came within three points of Cruz in a state where the last time a Democrat was elected to the U.S. Senate was in 1988. The former U.S. representative from El Paso was born Robert Francis O’Rourke, but was given the Spanish nickname “Beto” as a child.

Key Issues

Tulsi Gabbard
D

U.S. representative from Hawaii

Age on Election Day: 39

Bio

Tulsi Gabbard is a combat veteran and U.S. representative from Hawaii. She was elected to Congress in 2012 after serving two tours of duty in the Middle East. Gabbard has made foreign policy a central part of her presidential campaign, calling on the U.S. to end wars aimed at regime change.

Key Issues

Jay Inslee
D

Washington governor

Age on Election Day: 69

Bio

Jay Inslee has been the governor of Washington since 2013 and helped push through the country’s first carbon tax at the state level. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 1995 and from 1999 to 2012. He was also the regional director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during the Clinton administration and spent several years as a practicing lawyer.

Key Issues

Kirsten Gillibrand
D

U.S. senator from New York

Age on Election Day: 53

Bio

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand was appointed U.S. Senator for New York in 2009, replacing Hillary Clinton when she left her seat to become secretary of state in the Obama administration. Gillibrand subsequently won reelection and is currently serving her second term. Gillibrand was previously a U.S. representative for New York. She was the first senator to call for then-Sen. Al Franken’s resignation in 2017 after he was accused of sexual misconduct.

Key Issues

Eric Swalwell
D

U.S. representative from California

Age on Election Day: 39

Bio

Eric Swalwell is a four-term representative of California who was first elected to Congress in 2012. He was born in Sac City, Iowa, to a Republican family that later settled in California. His first job was as a prosecutor for Alameda County. He then served one term as a member of the city council in Dublin, Calif. Swalwell was the third candidate younger than 40 to join the 2020 race.

Key Issues

John Delaney
D

Former U.S. representative from Maryland

Age on Election Day: 57

Bio

John Delaney is a former three-term Congressman from Maryland. He was the first major candidate to announce his bid for president in July 2017, when he announced he would not seek reelection to Congress in 2018. Before entering public office, Delaney was an entrepreneur and was once the youngest CEO of a company traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Key Issues

Andrew Yang
D

Entrepreneur

Age on Election Day: 45

Bio

Andrew Yang is an entrepreneur and the child of Taiwanese immigrants. In 2011, he founded the nonprofit Venture for America, which connects college graduates to career paths in entrepreneurship. Yang is a veteran in the tech industry but running in his first-ever campaign. His universal basic income plan would endow every American adult with a “The Freedom Dividend," of $1,000 per month.

Key Issues

Michael Bennet
D

U.S. senator from Colorado

Age on Election Day: 55

Bio

Before entering public office, Michael Bennet was the superintendent of Denver Public Schools from 2005 to 2009. Bennet was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 2009, replacing Ken Salazar, former President Obama’s interior secretary, and has won reelection twice. He underwent medical care for prostate cancer in April and says he now requires no further treatment.

Key Issues

Tim Ryan
D

U.S. representative from Ohio

Age on Election Day: 47

Bio

Tim Ryan has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since he was 29 years old. Ryan was born in Niles, Ohio, where much of the economy relies on the auto industry. He’s focused on turning the economy into a “green economy,” and investing more heavily in jobs. Before running for Congress, Ryan served as an Ohio state senator for two years. In 2016, he challenged Nancy Pelosi for her position as House leader.

Key Issues

Seth Moulton
D

U.S. representative from Massachusetts

Age on Election Day: 42

Bio

Seth Moulton is a U.S. Marine veteran who serves as the U.S representative for the 6th district of Massachusetts. He has opened up about his own experience with post-traumatic stress disorder, saying he hopes it opens up more conversations around veterans health care, an issue for which he released a proposal in May. Moulton graduated from Harvard University. He served four tours in Iraq and earned a Bronze Star. He then returned to Harvard where he earned dual master’s degrees before running for Congress.

Key Issues

Veterans issues, boosting military spending while making smarter national security decisions

Marianne Williamson
D

Author and activist

Age on Election Day: 68

Bio

Williamson is a lecturer, author and a well-known spiritual leader. The Houston native has no prior political experience but she ran unsuccessfully for Congress in California's 33rd Congressional District. She gained national recognition in 1992 after her first book, “A Return to Love,” which became a New York Times best-seller. She's made regular appearances on Oprah Winfrey's shows and is often referred to as her spiritual adviser.